Wisconsin Cherry Ale

It took me a while to embrace Wisconsin as home. After growing up in Chicago and then living in Minneapolis for a few years, I missed the perks of big-city living when I moved to a small city in Wisconsin. But now, when we see the "Wisconsin Welcomes You" sign on our way north from visits to Chicago, I'm happy to be home.

I won't be donning a cheesehead any time soon, but I definitely try to support local businesses that are committed to culinary excellence. My latest homegrown favorite is Wisconsin Belgian Red, from the New Glarus Brewing Company in New Glarus, Wisconsin. It's an effervescent beer brewed with cherries from Door County.

The flavor of Wisconsin Belgian Red is tart and INTENSELY cherry. It's bubbly, fun and refreshing. On their website, the New Glarus Brewing Company describes the cherry ale as a "marriage of wine and beer." I like to serve it chilled in a wine glass as an aperitif on warm summer evenings. The cherry is our favorite, but my husband and I also like the New Glarus Brewing Company's Raspberry Tart, a raspberry flavored ale.

If you're thinking you might like to try Wisconsin Belgian Red, I hope you live in or near Wisconsin. Unfortunately, New Glarus beers are only available in Wisconsin. If you find yourself in the Dairy State this summer looking for culinary adventure, check out the website at http://www.savorwisconsin.com/, a list of Wisconsin food products. Cheers!

Strawberry Sorbet

Fresh strawberries are a sure sign of summer. The small pint we received in our first-of-the-season CSA box disappeared in minutes. I had to fiercely guard the four berries I intended to slice for a dinner salad of fresh lettuce topped with sliced radishes and strawberries.

Early the next morning, I drove out to a local strawberry farm. Usually, my kids and I pick our own, but it was already hot and humid with full sun, so I opted to pay the premium for pre-picked berries. I felt a bit greedy carrying a large flat with 6 quarts and wondered if I'd been a bit overzealous in my berry binge.

Twenty-four hours later, we're down to only one quart of fresh strawberries in the fridge. My kids enjoyed a big bowl of berries for lunch, staining their faces red. I made a batch of uncooked freezer jam to preserve the sunny sweetness for weeks to come. I made another quick salad of sliced strawberries and radishes, dressed with a bit of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and lemon juice. My big finish was a batch of strawberry sorbet, the perfect dessert on a hot summer evening.

Strawberry Sorbet

I found this recipe about six years ago in Bon Appetit (August 2003) and have been making it ever since. The original recipe is available here at http://www.epicurious.com/. I typically use lime in place of the lemon juice of the original, but both work beautifully. I make this sorbet in the winter using (thawed) frozen strawberries with good results. But make this now with fresh, local, ruby-red strawberries and you will be happy.

2 cups water
1 cup sugar

1 quart strawberries, hulled
1/3 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lime juice

Combine water and sugar in medium saucepan and boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

Puree half the strawberries in blender or food processor until smooth. Transfer pureed strawberries to large bowl. Puree the remaining strawberries until smooth and add to the first batch.

Pour the orange juice, lime juice, and the sugar-water mixture into pureed strawberries. Stir well. Cover the bowl and store in the fridge until mixture is thoroughly chilled, two hours or more as needed.

Pour the strawberry mixture into the bowl of ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions until the sorbet is frozen, thick and slushy.

Transfer the sorbet to a freezer-safe container and store in freezer to harden. Allow the sorbet to sit at room temperature for 5 to 10 minutes to soften before serving.

If you don't have an ice cream maker, check out the original recipe for instructions on how to freeze the sorbet in a 9 x 13 inch pan. Then seriously consider buying an ice cream machine.

Recipe makes about 14 (1/2 cup) servings.

Nutrition facts per (1/2 cup) serving: 75 calories, 0.3 g protein, 0.1 g fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 1 mg sodium, 0.8 g fiber

Chinese Potstickers

The June 2009 Daring Cooks Challenge, homemade Chinese Potstickers, was a culinary experience that satisfied on many levels, mind and body, heart and soul. I found it immensely rewarding to learn a new technique and am so grateful to Jen from use real butter for sharing her family's recipe and knowledge.

I followed Jen's recipe for pork filled potstickers and was delighted with the intense fragrance and authentic flavor. As I was forming the dumplings, my daughter held up the bowl of filling, inhaling deeply. The aromas of sesame, ginger, and soy were irresistible.



As I rolled, stuffed, and pleated the dumplings, I felt the satisfaction that comes from using your own hands to transform simple ingredients -- flour and water -- into a meal that nourishes and delights. This can be a revelation when your daily life is saturated with technology and shortcuts promising to deliver ease, speed, and convenience.

Using chopsticks to dunk the potstickers in Jen's soy-ginger-garlic dipping sauce made for a fun and intensely flavorful family dinner. All four of us were amazed to find that our homemade potstickers rivalled the dumplings at our favorite Chinese restaurants.

Making potstickers at home gives you a connection with all the Chinese moms and grandmas who passed the knowledge and tradition to their children. Sharing the experience with Daring Cooks all over the world gave me a tangible connection to the universal experience of food and family.

Although we loved the dumplings dunked in the soy dipping sauce, my daughter discovered a variation that really took the experience over the top. She's not a big fan of soy sauce, so she grabbed a hunk of parmesan cheese and grated it over her potstickers. At first, I dismissed it as kooky and unconventional; then I took a bite. It was a umami explosion.












Umami is considered the fifth taste, after sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. It's rich and savory, often described as meaty. Pork, shitake mushrooms, soy, and parmesan cheese are all rich in the compounds responsible for umami flavor. Pork potstickers sprinkled with parmesan and dipped in soy sauce were a surprise and delight, a nod to the combined wisdom of two cultures.

For the recipe, please follow this link to Jen's post on Chinese Dumplings/Potstickers at her blog, use real butter. Her instructions and photos take you through the process step by step.












I used the combination fry/steam method, as suggested by Jen. I cooked nine potstickers at a time in a 12-inch non-stick frying pan. First, I fried the dumplings in a Tbsp or two of oil for 2 minutes over medium heat. Then I poured in 1/3 cup homemade chicken stock (my only embellishment to the original recipe), covered tightly, turned heat to medium low, and steamed for 2 minutes.

If you're not up to the challenge of making your own potsticker wrappers, check out Emeril Lagasse and Alton Brown's recipes at Food Network for instructions using store-bought wrappers. Those are the recipes that got me hooked on potstickers at home. Now that I've been inducted into the homemade wrapper club, thanks to Jen and the Daring Cooks, I'm never looking back.

Nutrition information for one pork potsticker: 110 calories, 5 g protein, 5 g fat, 10 mg cholesterol, 92 mg sodium, 0.5 g fiber

Obama Brownies

A change from brownies as usual, these double-layer brownies are two-tone and bipartisan. They’re chocolate on top, butterscotch on the bottom, filled with a liberal dose of toasted macadamia nuts and chocolate chunks.

Brownies are a uniquely American treat. Obama Brownies are inspired by the uniquely American story of President Barack Obama. He was born in Hawaii of a mother from Kansas and a father from Kenya. After years of education, hard work, and public service, he burst on the scene at the 2004 Democratic National Convention with the message that despite our differences, we are one people. Four years later, he was elected our 44th President. (The official photo of President Obama and biographical details are from http://www.whitehouse.gov/.)



Obama Brownies combine two layers and many flavors. The butterscotch and chocolate fuse into a middle layer of hopeful cooperation. The result is dense and chewy, sweet and nutty, buttery and chocolaty.

Obama Brownies came to me mid-winter when three ideas collided like a winter storm. First, I was rejected by my Wisconsin Congressman and Senator in my bid for tickets to the Inauguration. Secondly, The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging urged me to blog about current events. Then I came across a recipe for double-decker bar cookies in Baking From my Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.



After months of testing, I’m thrilled to finally post the recipe for Obama Brownies. Yes, I can!



Obama Brownies

These brownies are dense and chewy. The chocolate layer is based on my favorite brownie recipe, in Mark Bittman’s book, How to Cook Everything. I added a stimulus package in the form of espresso powder, macadamia nuts, and chocolate chunks. I designed the butterscotch layer to have similar texture and volume as the chocolate layer.

Butterscotch Layer
1 stick unsalted butter
¾ cup light brown sugar
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 egg
¾ teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup chocolate chunks
½ cup toasted macadamia nuts

Chocolate Layer
1 stick unsalted butter
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
½ teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon instant espresso powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup chocolate chunks
½ cup toasted macadamia nuts

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Prepare 9-inch square baking pan by lining bottom with foil or parchment paper, allowing the foil/paper to extend beyond the edges to serve as handles for removing the cooked brownies. Grease the foil/paper and exposed sides of the pan with oil.

2. Make the butterscotch batter. Melt the butter in medium microwavable bowl; cook in the microwave for about one minute on high power. Add the brown sugar and granulated sugar. Stir well till thoroughly combined. Add the egg and stir again to thoroughly incorporate. Stir in the vanilla, baking soda, and salt. Add the flour and stir until flour just disappears into batter. Add the chocolate chunks and macadamia nuts; stir to distribute. Pour the butterscotch batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly.

3. Make the chocolate layer. Using the same microwavable bowl, melt the butter and unsweetened chocolate in the microwave; cook in the microwave on high power for one minute. At this point, there will be unmelted chunks of chocolate, but remove bowl from the microwave and stir well until chocolate and butter are thoroughly melted and combined. Add the granulated sugar and stir well. Add the eggs and stir until thoroughly combined. Stir in the vanilla, espresso powder, and salt. Then add the flour and stir until flour just disappears into batter. Add the chocolate chunks and macadamia nuts; stir to combine. Pour the chocolate batter over the butterscotch batter and spread evenly.

4. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until brownies are just set. The top will appear dry and crinkly; a skewer inserted in the middle will have moist, fudgy, crumbs (not wet batter), and the top will feel springy but firm.

5. Let the brownies cool in the pan for at least one hour. Run a knife or spatula between the brownies and pan. Use the foil or parchment to lift the entire slab of brownies out of the pan. Slice and serve.

For 32 servings, cut the brownies into 16 squares. Cut each square in half again.

Nutrition information per serving: 192 calories, 2 g protein, 12 g fat, 35 mg cholesterol, 53 mg sodium, 1 g fiber

Thin Crust Pizza

Pizza is often lumped with junk food or fast food. But made from scratch at home, it's slow food. It spends only minutes in the oven, but like any yeast bread, the dough takes time. Plus you can make pizza at home with an eye towards nutritional balance; the nutrition facts (below) might be a pleasant surprise.

I've been making homemade pizza for years. I started by trying to mimic the cracker thin pizza from my favorite pizzerias on the southwest side of Chicago. Making pizza at home is not complicated, but it's a stepwise process that requires some comittment.



You'll want a pizza stone and a pizza peel for best results at home. The stone preheats along with oven and helps produce a crisp crust. The peel, essentially a giant spatula, transfers the pizza onto the hot stone. If you don't have a pizza stone or peel, check out these posts by Michael Ruhlman and Smitten Kitchen for great tips on making pizza at home with ordinary kitchen tools.

Pizza requires a very hot oven, so a clean oven helps reduce smoking. Before I learned how to use the self-clean feature of my oven, my family knew it was pizza night when the smoke alarms sounded.



For me, the trickiest part of pizza making is the transfer from peel to stone. I liberally dust the peel with cornmeal so the pizza slides easily. A test shake to make sure the dough is loose and not sticking to the peel is a tip I learned from this great video from the New York Times. It's a fun demonstration of homemade pizza from start to finish.

Forming the dough requires a bit of finesse, but mostly patience and practice. Some pizza aficionados disdain the use of a rolling pin, claiming it produces a dense crust. But I find it easier to get uniform thickness and a nice round shape with a rolling pin, particularly for thin crust pizza. I just let the rolled dough rest a bit before topping.

Alternately, you can use your hands to stretch the dough to the desired shape. I keep trying to master this stretching technique, but I usually end up with uneven thickness and odd shapes. No matter, the pizza is still good.

If you're new to pizza making, check out these instructional videos from the Chef at Pizzeria Paradiso (a great pizza joint in Washington DC) for a demonstration of shaping pizza dough either by hand or with a rolling pin.

Homemade pizzas are not perfect. But they are delicious, fun and so satisfying. I make pizza more often than any other food, but I'm constantly experimenting in the quest to make it better. In addition to the links above, check out the list of links at the bottom of the post to find inspiration and advice for your own pizza quest.



Homemade Pizza

Although it's possible to start and finish your pizza in the same day, the best pizza takes time. Delayed gratification is a difficult lesson, but well worth it. The flavor of the dough will improve as it rests in the refrigerator for a day or more. I find the same is true about the sauce - just like spaghetti or lasagna taste better the next day.

Basic Pizza Dough

This basic dough makes 2 thin-crust pizzas, or one medium-thick pizza. I use a bread machine to mix, knead, and rise the dough. This is just for convenience, it's not essential. If you don't have a bread machine, please don't let that stop you. I've included several links below with instructions for mixing the dough by hand or with a mixer.

3/4 cup warm water
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 cups bread or all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon table salt
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

1. Add the water and oil to the bread pan. Add the flour, sugar, and salt on top of the water & oil. Spread out the top of the dry ingredients. Make a slight depression in the center of the flour and put the yeast there.

2. Secure the bread pan in the machine and close the cover. Select the "Dough" setting and start the machine. When it's done, remove the dough.

3. Divide the dough into 2 portions and shape each portion into a round. Transfer the dough rounds to an oiled and floured Ziploc bag, and store in the refrigerator for one to five days.

Assembling the Pizza

On pizza night, with the dough and sauce done ahead of time, you can focus on the toppings. Keep it simple for the kids with a cheese pizza. Look for a Wisconsin-made mozzarella and shred it yourself. Beyond cheese, anything goes, but use a light hand with the toppings. Cheese & Sausage is a regular at our house, but the Italian sausage needs to be cooked first before it goes on the pizza. Pepperoni is classic and easy. Sauteed mushrooms, onions, or peppers are other good choices.

prepared pizza dough
1/4 cup pizza sauce, more to taste
1 cup freshly shredded mozzarella cheese
other toppings as you desire
extra flour for dusting counter
cornmeal for dusting peel

1. The dough needs to be room temperature before you start shaping, so take it out of the refrigerator several hours before meal time. About an hour before you begin assembling the pizzas, start preheating the oven. Put the pizza stone on the oven rack in the lowest position. Turn the oven to 525 degrees F and let the oven and stone preheat for at least an hour.

2. Once the dough has lost it's chill, punch the 2 dough balls down and reshape each into a round, flattened disc. Sprinkle some flour on your work surface to keep the dough from sticking. Using your hands or a rolling pin, press, stretch or roll the dough into a 12 to 14 inch round. Check frequently that dough is not sticking and sprinkle more flour as needed. Take a break and let the dough rest if it starts to resist or shrink.

3. Sprinkle a handful of cornmeal onto the pizza peel. Transfer one of the dough rounds to the peel. Shake the peel to make sure the dough moves freely and is not sticking to the peel.

4. Spread 1/4 to 1/3 cup pizza sauce (recipe below) on the dough, leaving an inch around the edge free of sauce. Next add (non-cheese) toppings of your choice if desired. Use toppings sparingly though, don't overload the dough.

5. Finish by sprinkling freshly shredded mozzarella cheese (about 1 cup, more to taste) over the sauce and toppings. Again, less is more. At this point, a light sprinkling of Parmesan and/or dried oregano is optional.

6. Slide the pizza from the peel to the stone. You need to get it moving with a firm jerk. Bake the pizza for about 4 to 6 minutes or till done. The pizza is done when the crust is golden brown around the edge and the cheese is browned in spots. Let the pizza cool for at least 10 minutes before slicing.

7. If you're ready with another pizza, you can slide it directly onto the stone. If you're not ready with the next pizza or if you want the stone to heat up some more, carefully brush residual cornmeal off the stone. Otherwise it will start to burn and smoke as the stone heats up awaiting the next pizza.

Troubleshooting Homemade Pizza

You may need to make adjustments to the oven temperature or placement of pizza stone and oven rack to optimize the pizza. In my experience, the cheese has a tendency to be done before the crust is crispy enough. In that case, I cover the cheese with a bit of foil for the final minute(s).

The other issue is blistering in the dough as it cooks. Small to medium sized blisters are desirable and delicious. But sometimes (not always) enormous blisters form. My strategies for dealing with blisters have run from poking holes in the raw dough with a fork before topping to ignoring them and hoping for best. A compromise solution is to check for blisters after a minute or so and to pierce and deflate any unusually large blisters with a knife. The finished pizza may be marred by craters, but will still be delicious.

Pizza Sauce

This recipe is adapted from Peter Reinhart's "Crushed Tomato Sauce" in American Pie. For me, dried oregano defines pizza sauce and fennel makes it fabulous, but use whatever herbs you prefer. I've found the thickness of crushed tomatoes vary by brand; some are very thick. In that case I thin out the sauce with a bit of water and/or wine. You can use the sauce right away, but it's better with an overnight rest in the refrigerator. This recipe makes a lot of sauce -- enough for many pizzas. Store the leftovers in the freezer, preferably in 1 cup portions.

1 can (28 ounces) crushed tomatoes

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoons dried oregano

3/4 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed

2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar

1/2 teaspoon salt, more to taste

pinch sugar (optional)

Combine all the ingredients in a medium bowl and stir well. Taste for salt; add more as needed. If the tomatoes have no added salt, I typically use an additional 1/2 teaspoon (totalling 1 teaspoon salt). Sometimes, I add a pinch of sugar or more vinegar to get the right sweet-tart balance. If it seems too thick, stir in a bit of water.



Each 12 - 14 inch pizza yields 8 slices. The nutrition facts are based on a thin-crust pizza using half the basic dough recipe above and 4 ounces part-skim mozzarella cheese. The sausage pizza facts assume 2 ounces Italian sausages.

Nutrition Facts for 1 slice cheese pizza: 122 calories, 6 g protein, 5 g fat, 270 mg sodium, 8 mg cholesterol, 1 g fiber

Nutrition Facts for 1 slice cheese & sausage pizza: 142 calories, 7 g protein, 6 g fat, 319 mg sodium, 12 mg cholesterol, 1 g fiber

Helpful Pizza Links

Homemade Pizza by Elise of Simply Recipes
Best Pizza Dough Ever Recipe at 101 Cookbooks
Good article on pizza crust from New York Times
Excellent flatbread-type pizza dough recipe in NYT

Steel Cut Oatmeal

Rolled oats are indispensible for granola, baking, and quick bowls of oatmeal on weekday mornings. But a bowl of creamy rolled oatmeal always gives me a craving for the much nuttier steel cut oatmeal.

The appeal of steel cut oats, also known as Irish or pinhead oats, lies in the texture. They have a bit of chew and a springiness between your teeth, unlike the mushiness of rolled oats.

Steel cut oats need about 30 minutes of simmering, which might be more time than you can spare when you're trying to beat the school bus to the corner. Fortunately, steel cuts oats reheat beautifully in the microwave.

Make a big batch on day one; store the leftovers in the fridge. Reheat a single portion with a bit of milk in the microwave. You get all the chewy texture plus creamy oat flavor.

As with many meals in a bowl, toppings make all the difference. My go-to toppings are toasted walnuts, maple syrup, and dried cherries. But most anything goes -- cinnamon, raisins, brown sugar, chopped apples or peaches, butter, cream, vanilla, and so on. I'd love to know what you're favorite toppings are.

Steel Cut Oatmeal

I use McCann's Steel Cut Oatmeal and follow their instructions for "Irish Porridge," described below. There are certainly other brands out there; just look for "steel cut oats" somewhere on the label.

4 cups water
1 cup steel cut oats
1/4 teaspoon salt, more to taste

Bring the water to boil in a medium sauce pan. Add the oats and salt and stir well. Reduce heat to low, and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Enjoy one serving of oatmeal with the topping of your choice. I recommend a bit of maple syrup with chopped toasted walnuts and dried cherries.

Store the leftover oatmeal in the fridge in a sealed container. To reheat, scoop out one serving to microwaveable container, add 2 to 4 Tablespoons milk, and reheat (covered) in the microwave for about 1 1/2 minutes or so, until piping hot. Stir well, garnish as desired, and enjoy.

Recipe makes 4 generous (1 cup) servings.

Nutrition facts for 1 cup oatmeal (plain): 150 calories, 5 g protein, 2.5 g fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 148 mg sodium, 4 g fiber

Nutrition facts for 1 cup oatmeal with 1 Tbsp maple syrup, 2 Tbsp walnuts, and 1.5 Tbsp dried cherries: 343 calories, 8 g protein, 12 g fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 152 mg sodium, 6 g fiber

Here are some links to other recipes for steel cut oats you might enjoy.

• Steel Cut Oatmeal at Pinch My Salt
• Preparation tips from McCanns Irish Oatmeal
• Alton Brown's Steel Cut Oatmeal
• Heidi Swanson's Seven-Way Steel Cut Oats

Anne Burrell's Asparagus, Pecorino & Red Onion Salad

When I saw Anne Burrell make this salad with raw asparagus on her show, Secrets of a Restaurant Chef, I thought it was genius. She cut the asparagus crosswise into super-thin rounds, ensuring fresh, green flavor and crisp texture without any fibrous stringiness.

I admit I had doubts as I was chasing roly-poly bits of asparagus all over my kitchen. Once corralled, the miniature dots of asparagus were tossed with red onion, pecorino cheese, red wine vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, and kosher salt.

The result was a quick and satisfying spring salad. I served it along side a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store and had dinner on the table in less than 30 minutes.

I was so enamored with the miniature asparagus rounds, I used them the next day in a beef and asparagus stir fry.

You'll find Ms. Burrell's Asparagus, Pecorino and Red Onion Salad recipe here. If you're the type who can't get enough asparagus every spring, add this salad to your repertoire.

Nutrition facts for 1/6 of recipe (made with 1/4 cup olive oil): 167 calories, 7 g protein, 13 g fat, 13 mg cholesterol, 596 mg sodium, 2 g fiber

I'm not the only food blogger who was impressed. See what the Amateur Gourmet had to say about the asparagus salad here.